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Nice simple but interactive story for toddlers to enjoy

Fox's Socks is one of the stories from the small Tales From Acorn Wood series that is written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler (for those who don't already know, they are the creators of The Gruffalo). Fox's Socks was given to my son as a gift but the retail price on the back of the book states £4.99 and, at the time of writing this review, the book can be purchased from Amazon for £3.39, including delivery.

Fox's Socks is a board book and a lift the flap book. The story tells the tale of Fox trying to find his socks and while on his search he finds several other items of clothing and so ends up fully dressed by the time he does manage to track down his socks.

If you have read my other children's book reviews you will be aware that my 21 month old son loves books and we love spending time together reading. This book is no exception, although it's a very simple story my son loves aiding Fox in his search for his missing socks! My son seems to love all interactive books and enjoys lifting the flaps on each page. The text is very simple with just a sentence per page but my son seems to like the rhyming flow. The illustrations are bright and eye catching, as they always are from Axel Scheffler!

The board book itself is sturdy, easy for my toddler to hold and turn the pages. The flaps are also easy for my son to lift but are a lot more fragile than the actual pages, my son has torn one of the flaps from the page but this can easily be stuck back on and he has not attempted to destroy any of the other flaps.

Another great creation from the brilliant team of Donaldson and Scheffler!

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A wonderful "lift-the-flap" book from the creators of The Gruffalo.

(Please note: My review is for the board-book edition published January 2011, which has a different cover).

I found this book in Tesco along with another from the Tales from Acorn Wood series and picked them both up as they were in a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" offer. So I got 2 books for £4.99, along with a set of 3 Disney books for £3 and a Winnie the Pooh Tigger sound book for £2. All of these, of course, were for my 15 month old niece who loves her books.

The Tales from Acorn Wood books are written and illustrated by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Most people will know Donaldson and Scheffler as the creators of the The Gruffalo books. Tales from Acorn Wood: Fox's Socks was first published in 2000 by Campbell Books, but my edition was published in January 2011 by Macmillan Children's Books in board-book format.

The story follows Fox who seems to have lost his socks. We follow him around his house as he goes in search of the missing socks.

Each page has an illustration and two lines of the story that rhyme, but that's not all! The Tales from Acorn Wood books are "lift-the-flap" books and so all the right-hand pages have a flap in them to lift up. For example: On the page that reads "Under the stair Is a shirt to wear.", there is an illustration of Fox and Mouse standing by the stairs . Under the stairs is a little door and opening the little door reveals Fox's shirt and some cleaning equipment. Each flap is flush with the page, so they can be a little stiff to open the first time around, but we've had no problems since.

The story is fun to read. My niece enjoys me reading it to her and I quiet enjoy reading it myself! The illustrations on each page are wonderful too, with both Fox and Mouse having different facial expressions on each page. The length of the book is just about right, keeping my niece's attention all the way through. She loves to open the flaps to seen what's underneath, as well as point at various things on each page, even though we've read the book a number of times now.

Will Fox find his socks? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Tales from Acorn Wood: Fox's Socks is definitely a keeper. We sometimes read it several times in one day and it never seems to grow old.

As I mentioned before, this isn't the only Tales from Acorn Wood book. We've also got Postman Bear and Hide & Seek Pig. We're also waiting for a fourth Tales from Acorn Wood book, Rabbit's Nap, but we're currently awaiting stock.

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The hunt is on for the fox's socks.

All of the children in our family love a bedtime story, I think most children are the same it becomes a part of their every day routine and something that they look forward to. It is time to wind down and relax and a gentle funny story is often the perfect way to end the day.My nephew really enjoys a good story, he especially likes it if the book is read over and over again and he gets to know the words off by heart so that he can join in as you are reading it to him.

Two books recently caught my eye, one was called `Barney's first day at school` and the reason that I chose that one was because one young nephew has just started school himself and the other book was for his younger brother who just loves being read to too. `The Fox's Socks ` is one of the books by Julia Donaldson and it is one from the `The tales from Acorn wood` range.I know very little about children's books but it is easy to know if they are enjoying the storyline by their reactions.

`Fox's Socks` cost me £4.99 and it has just twenty pages. The book is illustrated well, it is really colourful and I can see why it would appeal to little ones. The fox in question is looking for his clothes and the book is centred around his search.Two year old Aden just chuckles his head off as he lifts the flaps and looks at the pictures. The main aim is to find the fox's missing clothes and you can make the simple rhyming storyline good fun by reading the book with emphasis. Make the hunt for the clothes sound fun and then when you find a piece of clothing you can clap and cheer, I know that this works for Aden !There is only one problem, once he has one book read to him he then turns it into a marathon and wants you to read book after book. Trying to make each storyline sound magical gets difficult after a while !

The book is very colourful and surprisingly tough, flimsy books seem to end up in shreds after a couple of weeks.The hunt for the Fox's socks can be quite tough because the fox has quite a few bits and pieces hidden away in those pages.The storyline is light and funny and children will generally enjoy the antics of animals. The book helps young ones to identify both clothing and animals and I am sure that once you have shared the contents a few times then your child will be excited at the prospect of joining in.

Julia Donaldson has made sure that this book is as interesting as it can possibly be with the brightly coloured illustrations and the use of the flap pages.The simple rhyming storyline is printed in larger text and it would be a good book for an older child to read to their young brother or sister.

The Fox's Socks is available on the Amazon website at just under five pounds. I think that Julia Donaldson is more than likely best known for her book called `The Gruffalo` which is a very funny little tale, one tale that can help children understand that not all things monstrous are scary ! I know I have seen this one in my older nephews pile of books and it has been enjoyed time and time again.